Jehovah's Witnesses—Proclaimers of God's Kingdom (1993), “Chapter 6: A Time of Testing (1914-1918)”
“In his will Brother Russell outlined an arrangement for an Editorial Committee of five to determine the contents of The Watch Tower. ... Page and Brenneisen, however, promptly resigned—Page because he could not take up residence in Brooklyn, and Brenneisen (later the spelling was changed to Brenisen) because he had to take up secular work to support his family. Rutherford and Hirsh, whose names were listed in the December 1, 1916, Watch Tower, replaced them as members of the Editorial Committee.”
The chapter records Russell's death on a train at Pampa, Texas on 31 October 1916; the publication of a brief biography and the will in The Watch Tower of 1 December 1916; the board's creation of an Executive Committee of three; and Rutherford's election as president on 6 January 1917. It also quotes A. H. Macmillan: “Throughout his life Russell had been ‘the Society.’”
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Provenance and verification note for Jehovah's Witnesses—Proclaimers of God's Kingdom (1993), Chapter 6: A Time of Testing (1914-1918)
Confidence note. Opened on the Watchtower Online Library (jv chap. 6 p. 61 – p. 71). The quoted sentence stands between the page markers for 64 and 65, and the rest of the quotation is footnote b, whose reference mark is in that same sentence on page 64 — the library prints the footnotes after the last page marker of the chapter, so the footnote’s page is taken from its reference mark and not from where it appears in the document. Footnote b itself lists six reserve names, matching the six printed in the will.
Corroborated by. src-ctr-wt-1916-1201-will
Accessed. 19 September 2026 · Source ID. src-ctr-jv-1993-p64-will-succession